The Kansas Senate votes to end required immunizations for school attendance

The Kansas Senate has moved forward a bill - Senate Substitute for House Bill 2280 - that would essentially end required immunizations for school attendance. 

Senate Substitute for HB 2280 which is intended to remove the ability of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to investigate and possibly sanction medical professionals who prescribe medications that are not approved for certain illnesses, now includes a provision radically expanding the religious exemption for parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. 

Earlier in the session, the bill to limit the investigations by the Board of Healing Arts appeared to be going nowhere. It was sought by Senator Mark Steffen (R-Hutchinson) who has been under investigation by the Board for prescribing the horse de-wormer Ivermectin to Covid patients. When congressional redistricting maps promoted by Senate President Ty Masterson (R-Andover) did not pass the Senate, it was widely reported that Steffen was promised that his bill would be advanced if he changed his vote on the maps. Steffen did change his vote and now his bill has been passed by the Senate.

But before it moved to the Senate floor, it was amended to essentially end the requirement for any immunization for school attendance. This is not about the COVID vaccination. It would open schools to children who are not vaccinated for polio, measles, mumps or any other contagious disease for which an immunization is currently required. Any required immunization could be refused by any parent. 

Here is what the explainer from the Kansas Legislative Research Department says (emphasis ours):

The bill would also amend law relating to child care facilities and schools to provide that children and students enrolling in a child care facility, school, or preschool or day care facility operated by a school, would be exempt from immunizations required by the Secretary of Health and Environment if such immunizations would violate sincerely held religious beliefs. The bill would provide that, in the case of a child care facility, the person maintaining a child care facility or, in the case of a school or preschool or day care operated by a school, a school district’s Board of Education, such an exemption would be granted without inquiring into the sincerity of the request.

The bill would specify that, as they relate to immunization exemptions in the bill, “religious beliefs” includes, but is not limited, theistic and non-theistic moral and ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.

So, going forward (if this bill passes), any parent could opt their children out of required immunizations simply by saying said immunization violates their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Schools would be prohibited from verifying the sincerity of those beliefs and “religious beliefs” would no longer need to be “religious” but simply a belief held with the strength of a traditional religious belief.

This bill is now available for consideration by the Kansas House of Representatives. It could be moved as is by the House or simply dropped into a conference committee report at some time.